Bo and the Beast (Book #1) (Completed)

20. A Reward For A New Deal

Turning quickly before the Beast figured out what she was staring at, Bo walked along the wall of shelves and lost herself in the experience of the books. As she ran her fingers along their spines, the dust on their tops gathered on her fingers, speaking of years of neglect. Bo couldn't imagine anyone not reading these books when they had them right there in their grasp. Back in the camp, she couldn't even imagine this many stories in one place. The chemical bombs had made paper a rare thing, and even before that most people had moved their written material onto digital devices. With the war destroying so much, not many books had survived. Bo hadn't seen any like these in years, and she reverently picked up one near her.

The printed words stood stark against the white paper and she breathed in their scent. The stories of lost worlds and ideas stretched and reached for her, glad to be remembered after so many years locked in this room. Bo smiled at them, petting the spine while she read a few of the sentences while flipping through the thick pages. Most of the book seemed to be of militaristic or strategic content, but even reading of army movements was something Bo clung to.

The Beast stepped up a few feet behind her, his head ducked and his shoulders hunched. Bo saw him out of the corner of her eye, and if she hadn't known better she might think that he was acting a little skittish. She snapped the book shut and replaced it on the shelf.

"You're welcome to take down any that you want to read," the Beast said. "They sit here all alone and unused, rotting away. I think it might be good for them to be used again."

Bo just nodded, not wanting to thank him but still feeling a little grateful deep down. Books were precious, and she now had the run of an entire roomful of them. It felt a bit like all her birthdays rolled into one.

The Beast rolled his shoulders and walked back to the table, digging around in the papers and coming out with a square and flat object. He flicked his fingers a few inches above the glass surface of the object, and it blinked to life in a swirl of lights. It was some sort of screen, which meant he was going to pull up some program or information. She waited silently.

"The books weren't what I wanted to show you," he said, waving through the menus that popped onto his screen. He finally landed on whatever program he wanted, and then turned it horizontally before handing it to Bo. "Here."

At first, the screen only showed lines of script in the alien language, but then the image flickered to a new screen. It started as an indistinct gray blur, but soon sharpened into a swath of familiar orange.

It took her a moment to realize that she was looking at the tents in her camp from above. They looked like strange pyramids, covered in orange, almost camouflaged into the ocean of dust. Her heart leapt into her throat and she made a small strangled sound. A moment later, movement came from one of the tents and she saw a figure come outside and flap a blanket into the air. She knew this movement, it was meant to clear any stray dust from their bedclothes, and she also knew the person that did it. She'd recognize the choppy black hair and slender arms from any angle. Felicia.

If the Beast had not been watching her, she would have cried. She clenched the screen tightly, her eyes taking in everything about the way Felicia stood just outside of the tent, leaning against the pole. It was too far out to see much of her face, but Bo almost felt as if she could reach out and touch her sister. A moment later, and another figure appeared. Tall and muscular. Aston.

With shaking hands, she swiped her fingers across the screen in an attempt to bring the image closer. But as soon as her skin touched the glass, it shivered and flashed, going back to the screen with the alien letters.

"What happened? Bring them back," Bo said, shoving the screen at the Beast like a child. Her voice wobbled, but she didn't care. She just wanted Aston and Felicia back where she could see them.

The Beast took the screen and tapped it a few times, before handing it back to her. It zoomed in again, coming into focus on Felicia and Aston talking to a man and woman that Bo didn't recognize. She wondered who they were for a brief moment, but the nearness of Aston and Felicia was too distracting to wonder about the strangers for long. Bo drank her family in, feeling a pit in her stomach open up because she couldn't be there with them again. It was strange how the two people who had known exactly how to get under her skin, were now the two people she wanted the most to talk to again.

"Can we hear them? Can they hear us?" Her eyes never left their forms.

"It's a video from a stealth Service-Matons. He doesn't have an audio feed. He's the only one I have, and his speakers no longer work."

On the device, Bo watched as Felicia turned away from the group and walked under the shelter of the tent, disappearing from view. Bo strained her neck, trying to peer through the opening, but seeing nothing. She turned to the Beast.

"Can you get the image to go into the tent?"

He shook his head.

She'd known. A stealth robot may be able to seamlessly blend into its surroundings, but if it zoomed into a small tent, someone was bound to notice it. But somehow she just had to ask anyway. She looked back to the image, longing for that image inside the tent. Her dad had to be in there. He was so close, yet farther than ever. She couldn't see if he was well or sick, or even if he was still alive.

She studied Aston for clues, examining his posture and the way he talked to the others. Nothing in his gestures or demeanor suggested that her father was still missing, or that he hadn't survived the strain of the journey. She took that as a good sign, yet there was something else about Aston. Something tense and hard. He looked like those that had come home from the war, and that worried her. Her eyebrows knitted together and she leaned in.

The Beast's hand came into view and tapped the screen. The image vanished, cutting to black, and Bo was left with her own reflection staring gauntly back at her.

"What are you doing?" she demanded. "Turn it back on."

"That is enough for today," he said, as calmly as Dad had ever been when telling Bo she couldn't spend all day racing Aston on the hoppers.

"Put it back on," she said.

The Beast pried the screen from her fingers, and then pulled open a drawer under one of the tables. He dropped the device in and closed it again. "If you are good, and don't try anything like you did the other day, then you can see your family whenever you wish. You have to prove that you will cooperate with me. This a new deal, and I expect you to stick to it if you accept."

Bo's lips flattened, but she couldn't think of any arguments. All she wanted was to sit and stare at the screen all day, seeing what her family was doing in her absence. Even though she felt like a child, bartered with and talked-down to, she would do anything for even a few more seconds staring at her home.

She stuck out her hand for him to shake, her palm still slightly sweaty from gripping the screen. "Fine. You've got a deal."

The Beast took her hand, and Bo felt a shiver at the feel of his skin. That electrical pulse once again. Bo removed her hand as soon as she could, wiping it along her pants leg before banishing it to her pocket.

"See that this time you keep your word," he said.